Q&A With James Hetfield: “NO” To More Gaga!

The frontman for METALLICA has apparently had enough of the entire METALLIGA joke that has become his band’s achilles heel since the infamous ‘mic fail’ incident that plagued their much hyped Grammys collaboration with the queen of pop. James Hetfield recently answered some questions from journalist Claudio Vergara of the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, conducted before METALLICA’s April 1 appearance at Lollapalooza Chile in Santiago. Although Hetfield admits that Lady Gaga’s “energy was very, very exciting”… when also asked if he would want to collaborate with Lady Gaga again, he responded: “No. But even just talking with her, being around her, her energy was very, very exciting. She has lots of ideas, and she likes to push the boundaries like we do. So it was a good fit.”

METALLICA’s appearance with Gaga at the 59th annual event in Los Angeles on February 12 turned into the biggest rock disaster of all time when the Grammy sound crew failed to actually turn Hetfield’s mic on, forcing him to share the mic with Gaga after the first verse and chorus.

To add further insult and utter humiliation, presenter Laverne Cox did not even introduce METALLICA by name. At the end of the song, a totally pissed off, ready to lose his damn mind, Hetfield tossed his guitar at a road crew member while kicking his mic stand over.Going more in depth about the Grammys mishap during an interview with Chilean newspaper La Tercera, he said: “The actual show, live on TV, I was very angry, yes. All the rehearsals, everything was perfect; up to there, everything was working. But, you know, out of my control. Something happened… I don’t know what happened.”

Hetfield continues: “But the silver lining is that Lady Gaga and me were singing closer, and [there] was a little more collaboration. She’s an amazing person — very talented.”

He continued: “When we were asked to play the Grammys, we said, ‘Of course,’ we said, ‘Yes.’ But they need you to collaborate with somebody; they want to make it interesting. So I’m glad she was available to do it. She has a lot of integrity as an artist, [and she’s] very creative.”

Asked if he would perform again at the Grammy Awards in the future, Hetfield said: “Sure. Why not? I will have two or three microphones right next to each other, yes. [Laughs]”

Shortly after this year’s Grammy Awards, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone that Gaga was the “quintessential perfect fifth member of this band,” saying, “Her voice, her attitude, her outlook on everything is so awesome. [The performance] was so effortless and organic and she just has the spirit of hard rock and metal flowing through her veins. It comes really easy for her. There’s nothing contrived; she just has this super warm, easy energy.”

Well, at least the diehard fans can sigh of breath of relief knowing now that there is NEVER going to be a future collaboration with Gaga.